An Indiana judge and his wife were shot at their home but are in stable condition, according to local and state authorities on Monday. The nonfatal shooting adds to concerns about increasing acts of violence against senior public officials nationwide.
Police responded to a report of a shooting in a residential neighborhood in Lafayette, Indiana, at 2:17 p.m. local time Sunday, the Lafayette Police Department said. Two victims and shell casings were found at the scene.
Steven P. Meyer, a Tippecanoe County judge who recently announced his retirement, was injured in the arm, and his wife, Kimberly Meyer, suffered an injury to her hip, the department said in a news release. Both are in stable condition, it added.
Police have not identified any suspects. The shooter remains at large, officials said. The Lafayette Police Department said it is investigating the case with Indiana State Police, the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office, the West Lafayette Police Department, the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office and the FBI.
In a short statement, Kimberly Meyer expressed confidence in the investigation and appreciation for the “outpouring of support from the community” and the medical personnel who treated her and her husband.
Steven Meyer previously served as a city council member before being elected as a county judge in 2014 as a Democrat. In July, he sentenced a man to 40 years in prison for leaving a gun unattended in his apartment, which resulted in the 5-year-old son of the man’s girlfriend fatally shooting the man’s 1-year-old son, according to the Lafayette Journal & Courier. Meyer also oversaw the widely publicized case of Natalia Grace Barnett, a Ukrainian-born girl whose adoptive American parents abandoned her.
Multiple attacks against public officials and other high-profile figures have raised alarms about a surge in political violence reminiscent of the 1960s, a decade that saw the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
In September, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at a college campus event in Utah. In June, top Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed at their home in Minnesota by a gunman impersonating a police officer. In April, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence was set on fire. And in March, the New Mexico Republican Party headquarters was firebombed.
“I worry about the safety of all our judges,” Indiana Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush said in a statement. “As you work to peacefully resolve more than 1 million cases a year, you must not only feel safe, you must also be safe.”
“Any violence against a judge or a judge’s family is completely unacceptable.”
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, a Republican, said on social media that he was devastated to learn about the shooting. “Judges serve our communities by delivering justice, and they must be able to do so without fear for their own safety.”
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